The Blue Whale game paradox, digital literacy and fake news

Last week there were a number of news reports about the harmful effects of social media on the mental health of teens and young people. Responding to this, we are publishing two posts this week that address the topic. The first post was about young people encountering inappropriate content online. This second post by Gianfranco Polizzi looks at the Blue Whale game and digital literacy.

‘Fake news’, as Gianfranco Polizzi explores here, highlights the need for everyone, parents and children alike, to be digitally literate. In light of the viral Blue Whale game, Gianfranco questions the harmful effects of responding to online harm. Gianfranco is a PhD researcher in the Department of Media and Communications at the London School of Economics. His academic background is in international communications studies and his doctoral project deals with critical digital literacy and political participation. [Header image credit: S. Steuart, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0].

The Blue Whale game shows a greater need for parents’ digital literacy, falling under the encompassing term ‘media literacy’. It reminds us that moral panic and public anxiety can spread in the name of boosting children’s resilience to inappropriate content online.

Although news media can be blamed for disseminating panic, parents should learn how to develop critical dispositions towards digital media, akin to those that they can help encourage in their children. Paradoxically, the Blue Whale panic overshadows how dangerous fake news and misinformation are for society, and how important it is to critically consume media content. Digital literacy is essential for everyone, but what does digital literacy mean, and how can we promote it?

Moral panic resulting from rumours about the Blue Whale game has not only been illegitimately propagated by news media, but obfuscates how important it is to question authority and information consumed online.

Digital media can be advantageous provided reflective engagement is based on understanding both risks and opportunities. Moral panic about the internet may be detrimental to society at large:

It may lead to policy initiatives undermining freedom of information in favour of regulatory mechanisms justified under the rationale of internet safety.

It distracts from appreciating the duty that we all have as citizens to be critically informed along with the right not to be misinformed.

Inasmuch as our democracies rely on electoral obligations requiring an informed citizenry, fake news, as acknowledged by the UK government, is a threat to our society and political system.

And even the most reputable sources can sometimes be wrong. The BBC, for instance, reported on the Blue Whale game as linked to youth suicide instead of disconfirming fabricated claims, despite providing tips on CBBC (Children’s BBC) Newsround, where the BBC give advice for spotting fake news. Although it may be challenging to tell if a website is credible, comparing media platforms is essential. This practice, however, depends on the user’s familiarity with the biases of various sources.

Children and parents must develop awareness of digital media’s risks and opportunities, to enhance their functional digital skills to facilitate safer engagement online. Such awareness may not be about critically understanding content-related issues of power and ideology, but appreciating, for instance, threats of identity theft and inappropriate content. Understanding digital media as technologies embedded within power structures is also crucial, as is our responsibility as citizens to engage reflectively with digital media.

Critical digital literacy should be promoted by educating children, young people and adults about digital media’s transformative, democratising potential, along with the ways in which this potential remains constrained.

a fundamental necessity for ensuring children’s resilience to inappropriate content, and for citizens critically using digital media in society at large.

This incident reminds us that children’s internet safety is important, and that parents’ fears can be exploited. While it illustrates that moral panic can be instrumental in calling for greater internet safety, each party has a different role to play in the process. News media is responsible for checking their sources, and citizens of all ages are responsible for critically interrogating digital media, with an emphasis on digital literacy for all.

This post gives the views of the authors and does not represent the position of the LSE Parenting for a Digital Future blog, nor of the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Even as the killer online game ‘Blue Whale Challenge’ sent panic across the state, police on Friday registered a case against a youth hailing from Murickasseri in Idukki, for promoting the game through Facebook. The police said Jaisal Francis alias Charly,22, of Urulichalil, Murickassery, was charged with section 67 (punishment for publishing or obscene material in electronic form) of the Information Technology Act 2000

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